Profile

Habilitações:

PhD (1999); Aggregation (2011)

Current Research & Key Publications

Current Work:

He specialized in the areas of metabolism and bioenergetics, in particular in membrane transport and regulation in eukaryotes, including yeasts and plant cells. Current areas of scientific activity include plant-environment interactions, plant stress biology, grapevine physiology & grape berry biochemistry. Currently, his Plant Biology Group focuses on grapevine source to sink interactions in response to environment and on key biochemical and molecular events occurring during fruit development and ripening. The main targets of study are membrane proteins involved in cell/plant response to environment, including sugar (MSTs, SUCs, polyol transporters,…) and mineral transporters (COPT/Ctr-type copper uptake transporters, Na(+)/H(+) antiporters,…), water channels (aquaporins) and H(+) pumps, including the highly conserved evolutionarily ancient enzyme V-H(+) ATPase. In a recent study, the impact of polyols on grape berry composition and grapevine response to water deficit stress, via modifications in polyol transport and metabolism, was analyzed by integrating metabolomics with transcriptional analysis of sugar transport genes and biochemical approaches, including the functional characterization of VvPLT1 (Vitis viniferapolyol transporter 1) by heterologous expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the VvPLT1-GFP localization after Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of tobacco leaves. His group has been actively involved in several research and cooperation projects at the National and European level. He is integrated member of CITAB http://www.citab.utad.pt/. As collaborator of CBMA he is currently involved in the study of the role of vacuolar (V) H(+) ATPase during apoptosis. In 2012 he was a Fulbright visiting Professor at the UCDavis (USA). He his professor at the Biology Departament of University of Minho since 1990.

Gerós H, Cássio F, Leão C. 2000. Utilization and transport of acetic acid in Dekkera anomala and their implications on the survival of the yeast in acidic environments. Journal of Food Protection 63: 96-101.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10643776

Jorge Gonçalves “Functional characterization by cytofluorimetric techniques of purified mitochondria and vacuoles to understand their role in apoptosis”. Supervisors: Manuela Côrte-Real and Hernâni Gerós. Departamento de Biologia. December, 2012.

Richard Maykel Gonçalves Breia “Study of the photosynthesis and of the metabolism of sugars and organic acids during the development and ripening of the grape berry”. Supervisors: Hernâni Gerós e Ana Cunha. Universidade do Minho Concluded in 2011.